PIAA States Preview

It’s hard to believe that the season is coming to a close. With NCAAs and the olympics coming up in the near future, there is still a lot of interesting things happening in the track world. However, high school nearing the end of a historic season. Pennsylvania has become one of the most competitive states in country, up in the ranks with Virginia, California and Texas. On the distance side of this state meet the races could not be closer. It was difficult to tell who was going to run which individual events and now that entries are our predictions can be made. What is interesting is how the top individuals seeded themselves between the open 800 and 1600.

Just a couple weeks ago I would have told you that the AAA 800 would be a three or four man race. This is no longer the case. Two guys from District 12 ran 1:53 at their District Championships last week, and the field is loaded. Wisner, Desko, McGinnis, Hoey and Feffer are all in the same race. Need I say more? Wisner is obviously going to try to hang back and kick the leaders at the end, and Hoey is going to try to take it out quick. I really have no idea who’s going to run away with this one, and the rest of the top 8 are going to be very close. If I had to guess I’m going to rely on Wisner’s foot speed on this one.

The 1600m might be even more stacked. Josh Hoey and Mike Kolor are definitely sub 4:!0 hopefuls, and I think this will be an interesting dual. Josh Hoey is definitely the favorite, but Kolor has showed solid performances time and time again. But don’t forget Alex Milligan. He really hasn’t attacked the 16 that much this season and I think he’s ready for a big PR. He was very fast off of the triple last year and I think this year won’t be an exception. Jacob Stupak, Liam Galligan, and Liam Conway are all dark horses ready to strike. I’m expecting this to be a very tactical race, much like the 800m.

The 3200m should be just about as fast as it has been the past 2 years. The state record may be safe, as Jake Brophy seems like he is attempting the 4x8 3200 double. However, Nathan Henderson and Nick Wolk will challenge him from the start and should be able to push him to a low 9 if not sub 9. However, I think it’s clear that Brophy is the favorite.

The 4x800 will be similar to the 3200m. State College is a clear favorite and they have produced time and time again. Whether they will be close to the national record (which is also the state record) or not is hard to tell, because they will probably need some close competition to get them to that time. I believe they are running at New Balance Nationals this year which might be a better time to go for that record.

Penn Relays High School Recap

Penn Relays is always an exciting meet. It’s the oldest track meet that is still currently contested. There is a mixture of collegiate, professional, high school, middle school, and masters levels of experience in the field. Over 15,000 athletes compete over the weekend from all over the world. U.S. teams have to contend with elite Jamaican teams that are selected based on prior performances to make the fastest teams possible. This weekend had many exciting races across the board, especially from the high school level. Slagowski became the seventh high school boy to break 4 minutes in the mile in history. Drew Hunter made the DMR extremely exciting as Loudoun Valley was near the back of the field when he got the baton. He won by less than a hundredth of a second. From the PA side of things, a Hoey won the mile as expected. However, it wasn’t Jaxson Hoey. Josh Hoey put on solid kick with 200m to go and won in 4:11. I’m interested to see if Jaxson was having a bad day or if he has some form of injury.

The State College 4x800 had a strong showing in prelims, allowing Milligan to comfortably secure the win with a 1:54 split. In the Championship of America Feffer had an incredible first lap and hung on for a 1:54 making up the ground that was left on the table by Wing in the first leg. These guys are really consistent on posting fast times, and I’m sure they are far from peaked. 7:44 is a strong showing this early in the season, and fourth in the Championship of America final is nothing to scoff at.

State College had some incredible individual performances. Veronika Karpenko won the triple jump posting an incredible 39’-5.25’’, narrowly edging out Jody-Ann Petrie of Jamaica. Not a surprise to some, Griffin Thompson posted a 15’7’’. The 3rd place indoor state vaulter has been silently improving at dual meets this season. He has made multiple close attempts at 15’10’’ and 16’, so look forward to seeing some higher marks this season.

Running Boom

Running has become extremely popular over the past 30 years. Some have realized the health benefits and the competitive aspect draws many others in. World records continue to drop every year. Some may say that this is because of new technologies and studies. However, I would argue that the reason that times have continued to drop is because of the mental side of running. The human body is capable of astounding feats. However, these feats can be very damaging to the body, so one's brain uses pain to keep themselves from beating up their own body on a daily basis. Improving on ignoring this pain gives way to faster times. More and more people are running, so more talents are added to the pool.

This increase has become extremely apparent in Pennsylvania high school running in the past few years. The cross country state course record was dropped only 6 seconds from 2007 to 2013. It was then dropped a staggering 21 seconds by Jake Brophy in 2014. His repeat win in 2015 was still under the previous course record, with a finishing kick to take the lead in the final 50 meters. Downingtown West had the record for most number of varisty members under 16 minutes in 2015. The Indoor state mile record was broken by Jaxson Hoey at the Millrose Games Trials. The 4x800m Indoor record was almost broken this year, and the outdoor record looks set to go. The time you needed in cross country to get a medal dropped by 32 seconds. On the girls side, Pennsbury and Unionville had the strongest teams that pennsylvania has ever seen, demolishing the field at states.

All of these examples show the stark improvement, that is most likely contributed to guts and determination. We've seen a ton of tactical races that mimic many famous elite races. Take for example the tactical surges by Mike Kolor and Dom Perretta in the PTFCA Indoor 800m. In the same race, Matt Wisner moved from 6th to 2nd in the last 30 meters. It is becoming increasingly difficult to be confident of your position at any point of the season. Even standout Division 1 recruits Jake Brophy, Jaxson Hoey, Dom Perretta and Alex Milligan have lost major races. No one is undefeated. I didn't even mention that Drew Hunter is already 3:57 in the mile. Nor did I mention that the American olympic spots are wide open. It's an exciting time to be a fan of track and field.

The Lore of Running

The outdoor season is just around the corner. Indoor Nationals provided some interesting results, but besides that there is not much to discuss in the competitive running world. Instead of providing the usual astronomical amount of statistics, I'm going to write about why someone would want to compete in this sport to begin with. We live in a modern age, with planes, trains and automobiles. Many jobs require their employees to sit behind a computer screen for many hours of the day. We have become increasingly immobile. With many Americans enjoying a surplus of food, comfort, and entertainment, why do some choose to put themselves in an uncomfortable place and run? Biking is much faster, more exhilarating, and provides less impact on joints. Running is slow, painful, and definitely not glamorous. People who play ball sports such as football, basketball and soccer don't have to go through nearly as much pain on a day to day basis, and generally attract more attention. Professional football players make millions, while even the best professional runners have trouble cracking a six-figure digit salary.

However, running is extremely natural. Humans are not the fastest animals on the planet. Usain Bolt is only slightly faster than an African Elephant at top speed. However, the farther the distance the better we get. We are able to shed excess body heat with ease. Being a biped makes running and walking extremely efficient. The arches in our feet act as natural springs connected to the springy muscles in our lower leg. Our arms are able to act as counterweights moving us forward. We are able to go days with nothing but water. We are built for running. The endorphins released when you run can give you a happy euphoria that some people call a
“runner’s high”.  

Many coaches for sports that involve running use running as a punishment. If you do something wrong you have to run a few laps around a field. Long distance runners find a few miles a piece of cake and can enjoy runs that are longer than ten miles. Most of us don’t even know why we run, but taking a break just makes us want to come back to the sport. The competitiveness is high and it is very easy to create a formula to get better. For the most part, the more you run, the better you become. There is no subjective decisions to be made when comparing athletes, because everyone has times and places at specific meets to use for comparison. We race against ourselves just as much as we race each other. It is a self bettering activity. So as the weather gets better, try going for a run. You might hate it at first, but after a few weeks you’ll be addicted.

A Short States Recap

PTFCA States was almost two weeks ago, but Indoor isn't quite over yet. The day started off with the 4x8, which was surprisingly more exciting than I first anticipated. State College was the clear favorite, but Abington and GFS were off to a strong start. Central Bucks West and GFS front loaded their relays, putting State College's Owen Wing towards the back of the field. It was also interesting to see the number of 1:56 second legs in the relay. State College first got the lead with Degleris's massive kick, much like his leg at the Millrose Games. State College did not take down the state record, but ran a fantastic 7:48, making them the only team in the country to break 7:50. Some notable differences from my predictions included Penn Wood with an incredible leg by Manyeah, and Council Rock North ran an 8:02.5 which was definitely not expected. CB West and Abington were able to pick off GFS later in the race.

The mile was a race highly anticipated, and lived up to expectations. As predicted, Jaxson Hoey did not run any faster than he needed to. He seemed to pace his younger brother to a time that would get him near the front. Josh delivered and the Hoey brothers claimed the top two spots. This was only the beginning of an unprecedented meet from these brothers. Cooper Leslie made a strong move and was in solid third place for a large part of the race. Huge props to him! Desko made a move near the end of the race, but ran out of real-estate to take down the Hoey brothers. On a side note, Jeff Kirshenbaum false started, which I would assume was on purpose: to save up for the 3000m.

The 800 did not go as I predicted. Dom Peretta was on another level. Matt Wisner waited until the last possible second to make a move from fifth up into second. Kolor still ran a solid time, and it will be exciting to see some more Kolor Peretta battles in the Spring. Jaxson Hoey still ran a fast time of 1:53, but just didn't have enough leg speed to get around these guys at the finish line.

The 3k played out very similarly to the way I predicted. Dom Hockenbury led for most of the race, although Rusty Kujdych led for the first few laps. I wasn't very confident that Kujdych was going to be in upper medal contention, and it seems that he just miscalculated his race strategy. Brophy was in third with a lap to go, just behind Nate Henderson. His finishing kick was fast enough to catch Hock on the final stretch. Poor Hockenbury had a very similar race last year with Matt McGoey. I will follow up with another post on the final relays and the team competition in the near future. Downingtown West may have the state record for the highest number of points scored at the state meet.

PTFCA States Preview

4x800:

There's a lot to discuss for the upcoming weekend. The 4x8 will kick off the meet. This is a change from previous years, when all the relays were at the end of the meet. Schools were allowed to enter teams into the 4x4, 4x2 and one of the 2 distance relays. However, this year the PTFCA are allowing schools to enter both a 4x8 and a DMR. This will make for some difficult predictions. Abington was the team to beat for most of the season. They ran a killer 8:01 in December, which is surprisingly the time they are using for their seed. I think it is difficult for a team to peak to early in the indoor season, but training can get rough around the holiday season and into January. I'm not convinced that this team has peaked, but only time will tell. GFS has had a strong showing in the DMR in the past. This year is no exception. This year it appears like they are putting everything into both distance relays. I'm unsure what the double will do to their DMR performance, but they should be able to start the meet with a fast 4x8 time. They were the first team to break 8, and have 2 studs in Dahl and Hepp. If the other 2 they decide placing in the relay have a big day they could come home with some impressive hardware.

And then there is State College. I talked about this team in the previous post, and nothing is really new hear. Coming into millrose they had a season best of 8:05 from Kevin Dare. I think they perform poorly when there is not a constant threat from competing teams. I do think they are the favorite with 7:51, and they have had a solid season of winning. It would take some interesting lineups from Abington and GFS to take down these guys. I think the only chance they have of making the states record of 7:45 would be if second place is able to stay in close contact.

Some notable dark horses loom with Bishop Shanahan, CB West, O'Hara, and CB East. LaSalle could get in on the scoring, and I think Pennridge would also have a chance to get in the mix, although they do not have Desko listed on their team entry.

     1. State College
     2. GFS
     3. Abington
     4. O'Hara
     5. CB West
     6. CB East
     7. Bishop Shanahan
     8. LaSalle

Mile:

Next we have the mile, where the favorite could not be more clear. Jaxson Hoey ran 4:12 at the Millrose trials back in early January and came back to place 5th with 4:11 in the Millrose games last weekend. This compares very closely to the greatest milers in PA history. At this point in the season last year, Sam Ritz was only 4:14. Tucking in behind Jaxson is a little more of a toss up. Liam Galligan, Tucker Desko and Josh Hoey have all run 4:19 this season. Colin Wills is right on their tail, and Noah Falasco, Connor McMenamin and Cooper leslie are all within 2 seconds. This could be a very interesting race, considering that almost everyone will be fresh. However, some will have to come back for multiple races later in the meet. My gut tells me that Desko will be able to pull second, as his speed will aid him in the final race for the line. I also have to note that Jeff Kirshenbaum is entered in both the mile and 3k. I don't know if he will be favoring one event over the other, but I think if he hadn't entered in the mile he would be more in contention for the 3k. I don't think he will make it on the podium in the mile, but he is a possible sleeper pick.

    1. Jaxson Hoey
    2. Tucker Desko
    3. Liam Galligan
    4. Josh Hoey
    5. Colin Wills
    6. Connor McMenamin
    7. Matthew Scarpill
    8. Cooper Leslie

800:

Mike Kolor has been the talk of the season. Coming off of a strong xc season he is shaping up to be one of the top distance names in PA. He has posted some quick times in the mile, but did not enter, and seems to be focusing on the relays and the open 8. However, even with the fastest seed of 1:53, he is still going to have to race well come Sunday. Dom Perretta and Jaxson Hoey are big names both entering with 1:54 seed times. There are also some possible sleepers in Nick Wagner and Matt Wisner. Wisner has been gathering kick xp (I'll talk about this term in a later post) all season. His victory over state college in the DMR at lehigh will surely give him the confidence in his kick at this meet. I think if anyone is able to out kick Kolor he is definitely the man.

    1. Matt Wisner
    2. Mike Kolor
    3. Domenic Peretta
    4. Nick Wagner
    5. Jaxson Hoey
    6. Sean Conway
    7. Isaiah Bailey
    8. David Fletcher

3000:

This post is starting to get long, so I will try to keep this event short. Basically all I have to say is Jake Brophy. There's no question that he is the favorite, and he's pretty much unmatched at the longer distances. He didn't have the great of a race in the mile last year, but the chance of him having a bad day are not that high. The real battle is going to be between Nathan Henderson and Dom Hockenbury. Hock is used to running against smaller schools in xc and outdoor. Indoor is his chance to stand up against the big guns from AAA. Last year he led for most of the race, getting out kicked by Matt McGoey. I foresee a similar race this year with Brophy. I think Brophy will be saving some for the DMR that takes place almost immediately after the 3k. He'll also be a little tired from the 4x8 earlier in the day. I think Nathan Henderson might be able to snag 2nd if he sits and waits for his opportunity to snag that position from Hock. It's a fast field from top to bottom this year, and even making it is an accomplishment (8:56). I'm glad PTFCA is allowing 14 to run. I'm curious to find out why they are only allowing 12 for the girls race.

    1. Jake Brophy
    2. Nathan Henderson
    3. Dominic Hockenbury (leads most of the race)
    4. Rusty Kujdych
    5. Nick Wolk
    6. Will Loevner
    7. Liam Conway
    8. Marc Migliozzi

DMR:

This is the hardest event to predict this year. Normally the best relay teams are split between the 4x8 and the DM, but this year teams can enter both. Most of the top teams are entered both. The fastest PA team this year is definitely DT West, but they don't have a full A team. Their focus on individual events will give them a better chance in the team competition, and Jaxson and Josh Hoey will be able to get on the podium. Without DT West running the Hoey brothers, GFS looks like the favorite. Hepp and Dahl are beasts. It's really going to be up to their 2 middle, and shorter, legs to keep them in the race. It's going to be hard for teams to race down Dahl if he is in the lead. State College is focusing on the relays and could really come away with some big points in this relay. Carlisle, Pennridge, and CB West all have very similar seed times and have some really strong individuals. After watching the lehigh DMR, I would say Carlisle might surprise some people. Pennridge certainly has the credentials on paper, but it is possible for other teams to upset them. O'Hara has the Jones pair and Morro and could potentially run much faster than their seed time. LaSalle has looked pretty good this season, and even Unionville could get in the mix. I'm guessing Brophy will be tired from the 3k, and won't have enough strength in his legs to get his team on the podium, but it's not out of the question. This relay will be extremely exciting to watch. Big props to all the teams that are racing.

    1. GFS
    2. State College
    3. Carlisle (close race between 3-5)
    4. Pennridge
    5. CB West
    6. O'Hara
    7. LaSalle
    8. Unionville

Millrose Games

I would begin the blog with an introductory post, however with the interesting events of the last weekend, I will jump right in. The 109th Millrose Games featured some amazing performances, especially in the high school races. Pennsylvania had a great showing. This season, State College has not performed anywhere close to last year in the 4x8. They barely entered the Millrose games with an 8:05. Not surprising based on personal bests, they went on to best that performance by 14 seconds. However, many would not have guessed that they could have walked away with the Eastern States title. Their lead off, Owen Wing, was boxed off from the start but moved up throughout his leg to a nice 1:59 split. He is new to the relay and shows the depth State College has in the 800. The remaining three legs are returners from last year's 7:41 team. Wing handed off to cross country state medalist Nick Feffer, who kept their position and laid down a monster kick to put State College in the lead with 1:56. Anthony Degleris started slow, but finished strong in a similar split time as Wing. Alex Milligan chilled on the first two laps of his leg, and sensing pressure from West Islip, the best team in the nation, tactically surged to the win.

Jaxson Hoey of Downingtown West has had a phenomenal indoor season off of his sour Nike Cross Nationals performance. He came to Millrose with a 4:12 personal best, and many expected him to be one of the top contenders. New York guys definitely dominated the field. Connor Lundy of Fordham Prep was a major favorite, as well as Aidan Tooker of Saratoga Springs. Usually the winner of the high school mile is from the east coast. However, Isaac Cortes from Great Oak, California narrowly won the mile cruising past Noah Affolder and the other New Yorkers. Jaxson placed 5th with a time of 4:11.

However, this was not the highlight of high school miles for the meet. Drew Hunter is starting to become somewhat of a household name. He ran 14:20 in cross country early in the fall. He won Footlocker Nationals by a sizable margin. Although he ran some very impressive times last year in track, it wasn't until he broke 8 minutes in the 3k that he really showed his strength. Just one week later he went back to become only the second high school guy to break 4 minutes in the mile indoors. He broke Alan Webb's American record of 3:59 at the Armory invitational. Just 2 weeks later he did it again running 3:57 in the "B" elite mile at the Millrose Games. And to top it off, he had a cold leading into, and during the race. The mile that is usually the highlight of the meet, the Wanamaker Mile, was very similar to last year. Matt Centrowitz clinched the title dueling with Nick Willis on the final lap. Track and Field has never been more exciting!